Professor at Stony Brook University of New York, he is rewarded for his contributions to the research on topology and for his work on chaos theory.
Le Monde
The Abel of Mathematics Award was awarded Wednesday, March 23 to the American Dennis Parnell Sullivan, for his contributions to research on topology, and in particular for his work on Chaos’s theory, announced the Norwegian Academy of science and letters. Mr. Sullivan, Professor at Stony Brook University of New York, was rewarded “for his revolutionary contributions to the topology in the broad sense, and in particular his algebraic, geometric and dynamic aspects”.
The topology “studies the properties of objects that do not change when deformed”, and A “important applications in fields ranging from physics to the economy through the science of data”, explained The Academy.
Conjugation of multiple domains
Describes as an “active and charismatic member of the mathematical community”, Mr. Sullivan, 81, was rewarded for finding “deep connections between a dazzling variety of fields of mathematics”. “Mr. Sullivan has gone from one field to another, apparently without effort, using algebraic, analytical and geometric ideas as a true virtuoso,” Hans Munthe-Kaas said, Chairman of the Abel Prize Committee, in a statement.
Born in the Michigan, the mathematician moved to Houston to Houston, where he then attended Rice University, before doing his doctorate at the University of Princeton. At the end of the 1970s, he began his research on dynamic systems, more known under the formulation “Chaos Theory”, since many dynamic systems have chaotic behavior.
Dennis Parnell Sullivan has solved a conjecture that had escaped mathematicians for sixty years. It will receive its price, which includes 7.5 million Norwegian wreaths (780,000 euros), May 24 in Oslo.